If you were an early adopter of the hot-selling iPhone 4S, you might be sorely missing a jailbreak by now. There is currently no such hackery available for the handset, either tethered or untethered. One of the most-missed jailbreak tweaks could be SBSettings, which allows you to access common system settings with just a single swipe. While it may not be quite the same, a new tweak now allows those folks without a jailbreak — including the many iPhone 4S owners out there — to have a similar way to quickly access their favorite settings.

The tweak utilizes URL schemes to access basic system settings like WiFi, Bluetooth, Hotspot, and iCloud (see the image below for the complete list). It’s basically creating Safari web apps — only instead of a web page, the shortcut will open the corresponding preference pane.

A wonderful bonus is that the designer, Jeff Broderick, has created some truly gorgeous icons. They fit in perfectly with the iOS user interface, utilizing stock icons when applicable:

The best part is that, unlike a previous trick that involves a 99¢ App Store app called Icon Project, there is no purchase required for this method. This one is all free, and can be done in a minute or less.

To get started, simply head over to the designer’s page on your iOS device. Select the icon that you want, choose ‘Install,’ and you will be presented with the following confirmation screen, which you will want to confirm:

You can repeat this for as many settings shortcuts as you want. If you collect them all in an easy-access folder, it’s closer to SBSettings than non-jailbroken iPhones were previously able to get.

The tweak works on any iOS device. The high-res icons also look just as snazzy on the larger iPad’s display as they do on the smaller iPhone and iPod touch.